To the Editor:

On March 7, there was an editorial in the Thompson Citizen headlined, “Value for money and due diligence.” The article stated that in some ways it was hard to know what to think of council going ahead and spending $25,000 for the City of Thompson to be featured on the Discover Canada series on Today in America.

Well, I can think of a number of ways that $25,000 can be better spent in the City of Thompson, such as: Increase the number of bus shelters in the city for the folks who use the city transit system.

We have extended the store hours in our community therefore it would make sense to extend the city transit service for our riders.

The funds could also be used to improve the service of the homeless shelter, to allow access to our outlying community senior citizens who travel by bus for medical appointments. They could be resting while waiting for their appointments in the comforts of the shelter instead of sleeping on the sidewalks in our downtown core.

The funds should be used to bring back the City of Thompson bylaw program with officers to help enforce and improve the downtown core.

Coun. Penny Byer, according to the editorial, argued at council, “This will be great for our [Thompson] image and changing our image.

If we don't change our image, being the fifth-largest city in Manitoba instead of third-largest largest will be with us as our reality for the foreseeable future.

The article also stated the objectives of the Thompson production will be to educate and inform viewers on things such as: the quality of life in Thompson, the many amenities the city has to offer, the history, lifestyle, education and infrastructure, as well as why this would be an ideal community to raise a family.

Through the lens of a camera, you can certainly find locations in the city of Thompson to show an image to match the above statement. However if you pointed that same camera lens in the direction of the “heartbeat of our city” the downtown core, I don't think the image would indicate an ideal community to raise a family.

In conclusion I say to our elected city officials please be “due diligence” with our tax dollars and use the funds within our city limits.

Addie N. Colbourne
Thompson